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GERD: public participation yet at momentum
Tesfaye Lemma
It is so historic that, Ethiopians march being one and the same to harness their natural resource in alleviating poverty and ensuring sustainable socioeconomic development. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is one among the many projects that brought together all nations, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopian.
Ethiopians believe that GERD is a symbol of their unison for the people of Ethiopia. Of course, there are a number mega projects that contributed to one admiration in strengthening the unity of all nations, nationalities and peoples.
However, this piece mainly focuses only on the GERD. In fact, developing any project along the Nile River was thought to be impossible in the country’s past history.
Financial constraints, unwillingness of donors to provide funds, influence of downstream countries particularly Egypt and lack of political commitment were some of the retarding reasons.
Previously, the Ethiopian economy was so deteriorated that the people couldn’t win their daily bread forget to say thinking about such a huge project. The people of Ethiopia were engaged in various civil wars and neighboring disputes.
The prevailing instability and insecurity hampered the entire situations of the country. That is why Ethiopia had not had any economic potential to finance such huge development projects.
Besides, no donor country or development partner was willing to sponsor any project on the Nile River. This was emanated from the injustice of the international community. The injustice where the the economically powerful countries decide for the fate of the poor nations.
The previous Egyptian leaders were exerting unreserved efforts in negotiating with donor countries to restrain their development donation or support to projects on the Nile River. That has become successful for years.
Despite its more than 85 per cent water contribution to the Nile River, Ethiopia’s effort to use the Nile River had suspended for many years. The downstream country Egypt has been utilizing the water for various developments.
Egyptians have been utilizing the Nile River since time immemorial. It has been playing an extremely important role in the civilization, life and history of Egyptians. The Nile provided the Ancient Egyptians with food, transportation, building materials, and more.
The Nile River is the longest river in the world. It is over 4,100 miles long! The Nile is located in Northwest Africa and flows through many different African countries including Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Burundi.
The most important thing the Nile provided to the Egyptians was fertile land. Most of Egypt is desert, but along the Nile River the soil is rich and good for growing crops. The Nile River also provided a lot of building materials.
It is also used like a major highway throughout the Empire. Boats constantly traveled up and down the Nile carrying people and goods.
The Blue Nile begins in Ethiopia, and joins the White Nile south of Egypt in Khartoum, Sudan. Together, they make up the longest river in the world. The Nile River has certainly played a critical role in the history of Egypt and Sudan.
As the Nile floods the lands in Egypt and Sudan, it leaves behind black residues, in which the two countries have been developed their cultivation.
Available documents indicate that Aswan is hot. It receives essentially no rain. Daytime temperatures hover over 100 degrees six months out of twelve. The only source of water is the Nile. Farmers in Egypt and Sudan have been cultivating all manner of crops: barely for beer, cotton for clothing, melons and pomegranates, wheat, flax, and papyrus.
Egypt completed the construction of the Aswan Dam in 1970 at a cost of about one billion USD. The dam, 111 meters high, with a crest length of 3,830 meters and a volume of 44,300,000 cubic meters.
It confiscates Lake Nasser that has a gross capacity of 169 billion cubic meters. The Aswan High Dam yields enormous benefits to the economy of Egypt. It also generates 10 billion kilowatt-hours annually.
The other significant factor is lack of political commitment. There was no visionary leadership that could stabilize the country and lead all hands to development. Rather there was a poverty defeated state in Ethiopia that led to deteriorated economy and thrives of abject poverty in the country.
Incredibly the countries entire situation has been changing in the past twenty four years. The efforts to alleviate poverty and ensure sustainable economic growth have bear fruits. Ethiopia has become capable of financing different huge projects including the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam by its own.
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which brings all Ethiopians together, has become a reality since the past six years. The firm commitment of the public and the government of Ethiopia will continue unabated until the completion of Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
It is the first project that changed the history of the country and its political as well as diplomatic strides. Besides, it is a unique project in which all the people participated in all aspects for its completion.
Despite all the challenges that the country faces, the Ethiopian people have kept the momentum of its participation and contribution to the GERD. As a result, the project is undergoing according to its very schedule.
In fact nix could deter this project as it is owned by the Ethiopian people. Rather, everyone in every walks of is delirious to the finalization of the construction of the Dam within its excitation period. However, this motivation, participation and consensus among the people of Ethiopia should be maintained and further strengthened.
Ethiopians irrespective of origin, age and sex have been contributing to the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. The Dam demonstrated the capacity of the country to build other huge projects with its own finance.
The government will strengthen its efforts to advance the national consensus among the Ethiopian people to make poverty a history. GERD symbolizes the strong solidarity built in Ethiopia based on mutual understanding and equality that brought together Ethiopians from all walks of life regardless of their differences.
The participation of the all nations, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia to realize the completion of the construction of the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance is yet as momentum. Recently the people have bought lottery for GERD with a total amount of 2.04 billion. This indicates that the Ethiopian people are enthusiastic to accomplish the construction of the Dam so as to lay bases for their development because they considered it as a symbol of their togetherness and strength. It also enhanced their national cooperation and unity
